Glass Study from Creek Bed Artifact to Light Play Artwork

Yesterday while searching for arrowheads at nearby Indian Creek in southeast Cedar Rapids, I found this item sticking out of the creek bed. It is a jug top consisting of thick, pressed, clear glass which has been pitted and worn smooth from the abrasive environment. My glass expert tells me that the top is probably around 100 years old or so based on the non-screw top. While the glass appears to have bubbles internally it is actually pitted from exposure to water, wind, temperature, and mostly, sand abrasion.

I cleaned the glass and set it up in my makeshift studio for close-up work. I selected the top photo for my Instagram account and posted last night.

This morning I took another post production look at the glass top and decided to eliminate the golden color that originally illuminated the century old artifact. Out with the yellow and in with the blue. I was tempted to remove the rusty pit on both images but decided to let it show the wear from decades of exposure. If you like one image over the other let me know with a comment.

Glass Treasure in a Box

Sometimes the ordinary is extraordinary. Take for example these telephone line insulators. While some are rare and quite collectable you can often buy the more common glass fixtures for a few dollars a piece - sometimes by the box. At a Labor Day weekend flea market in Marquette, Iowa a vendor displayed a variety of tools, glassware and this and that. I'm always on the lookout for a photo target and was not disappointed by the shapes, reflections and colors of these simple glass jewels of the wires.